Lawrence, Kan.-
The Kansas Relays were first held in 1923, and over the last 101 years has featured countless great performances by world and Olympic medalists and world record-breakers. This year once again, members of the OU track & field program had a chance to leave their mark on this historic competition. Over the course of the three-day meet, seven different Braves came away with top-10 finishes.
Jacob Ludwick lead the Braves by finishing in 3rd place overall in the men's javelin, but because the two men who threw farther than him were both unattached/professional competitors, Jacob came away with the title of Men's Collegiate Champion, earning him the right to stand atop the podium and a KU Relays championship wristwatch. "Jacob has been on a tear this season." Coach Whittaker remarked. "He has been an All-American two years in a row, but he has not become complacent. He returned this year with the desire to not only earn his 3rd All-American award, but to be in a position to fight for the national title. Both his training and performance consistency has been remarkable, and people across the country have been taking notice." The only athletes with a better mark than Ludwick's were Logan Wolfley (a former NCAA Division 1 All-American and Olympic trials qualifier) and Giles Fox.
Jordyn Weems was also a top-3 finisher, and once again it was in the women's long jump. "Jordyn found herself in a really difficult situation due to the fact that the 100m finals were scheduled to occur while she was competing in the long jump. She had to rush through her three preliminary attempts in the long jump in order make it to the starting line for the 100m final, so the tension was pretty high." Weems' was in 9th place at the end of the preliminary round, but her 1st attempt in the final was long enough to move her from 9th place to 3rd. The only two athletes who jumped farther were Aaliyah Lindsay from the University of Kansas, and Kiana Van Haaren from Northern Colorado.
JayOnna Perry earned a spot on the podium with her 8th place finish in the women's 400m hurdles. In Friday's preliminary round, JayOnna had run a personal best time of 61 seconds flat, once again breaking her own school record. "JP was in a similar situation as Jordyn—competing in the long jump while trying to navigate a schedule that forced her to scramble to make it to the start of the races she was competing in. It was a bit of a mess but our kids were still able to put up some really good performances under difficult circumstances."
The final podium finish for the Braves came in the form of the men's 4x100m relay, which ran in Friday's preliminary round without OU school-record holder and 3x All-American Jaylan Washington, but still qualified for Saturday's final where they finished in 5th place. The team of Jahkoby Franklin, Cameron Jackson, Domonic Atkinstall, and Xavier Garza ran their preliminary race in a time of 42.20, which is not OU's best time this season but is still better than every other team in the KCAC.
The Braves have just one weekend remaining before traveling to the University of St. Mary for the KCAC championship May 2nd and 3rd, but Coach Whittaker is still contemplating his next move in preparing the team for the most important meet of the year. "We may send some kids over to Baker University to get them one last competition before conference, and we had a number of athletes who qualified for next weekend's Drake Relays, which might be even more prolific than the KU Relays, but our goal right now is to sharpen up and get healthy so I'm still not sure who will actually compete next weekend and who needs to spend the weekend in recovery mode."
